PQ’s ‘Charter of Quebec Values’ is an abomination

Given a choice between fostering social peace and stomping foursquare on a hornet’s nest, Quebec Premier Pauline Marois chose the latter. All Canadians will now pay a price, of sorts — even though the chances of the Parti Quebecois’ Charter of Quebec Values ever seeing the light of day, as an actual law, are mercifully slim. That’s because the legislation itself was never the objective, here. It’s the fracas Marois and her party crave, and now have. It was a matter of devising a stick so sharp that a poke in the eye would be impossible for the rest of Canada to ignore.

Some will say the proposed charter, unveiled at a protracted, Orwellian news conference in Quebec City Tuesday morning by PQ minister Bernard Drainville, represents a clever tactical move by the minority government. After all, whatever one may think of its incipient parochialism, and its frightening trampling on individual liberty, there is a certain political logic to it. In making themselves champions of “secularism,” the PQ are in effect joining battle on the side of “pure laine” (old stock) Quebecers, mainly lapsed Catholics, against orthodox Muslims, Sikhs and Jews.

The fact there’s currently no social conflict to speak of between these groups — the PQ is inciting one — is immaterial. Polls suggest a majority of Quebecers favour limits on how far the broader society should go in accommodating the practices and beliefs of religious minorities. That doesn’t apply to most Christian expressions, of course, because Quebec is a historically Catholic society. But it does apply, in particular, to Muslims, who are the most numerous and visibly distinct of Quebec’s theistic minorities, as well as to some Jews and Sikhs.

Throughout the social, legal and political strife to come, the PQ will be able to claim that it is defending “real Quebecers” against Anglophones and Allophones, many of them newcomers whose choice of dress and belief in God make them a “threat” to the majority, and the encroaching, oppressive hand of the federal state. This is the immediate political payoff for Marois and her caucus, already in evidence Tuesday, as two federal political parties — the Conservatives and the New Democrats — wheeled to confront her, despite their obvious and long-standing aversion to doing so.

Ottawa, Multiculturalism and Employment Minister Jason Kenney said, would challenge “any law that we deem unconstitutional that violates the fundamental constitutional guarantee to freedom of religion.” NDP leader Tom Mulcair, looking visibly upset, told reporters in Saskatoon that, having reviewed the text of the proposed charter, his party “categorically” rejects it. Liberal leader Justin Trudeau has been on record for weeks as strongly opposing the proposal. It’s a trifecta of federal opprobrium, which the PQ will use to make its point that Quebec’s identity and destiny are crippled within the federation.

Well, yes. There is that argument. But there’s an even greater likelihood, it seems to me, that this too-clever bit of political chicanery explodes in Marois’ face and sees her party booted from office at the next vote, whether in a year, two years, or a month. Here’s why: Francophone Quebecers may be more prone to anguished discussions of identity than most other Canadians, but they’re no more fond of wrangling, conflict and waste. There cannot be a more pointless use of state resources, quite apart from its being unconstitutional, than that of paying a bureaucrat to dictate when a Star of David is too big, then arbitrate over the resulting passionate disagreement and court fight.

Moreover, the charter is already so shot-through with contradictions as to virtually guarantee its failure. For example: MNAs and other politicians, Drainville said, will be exempt from the rules. Asked why, he said people should be able to choose whether they’ll vote for a veiled woman, or not. The grotesque double standard lay like an enormous pit at his feet, for a moment or two. He appeared not to see it and forged gamely on.

Asked why the National Assembly would keep its large crucifix above the Speaker’s chair, Drainville replied that the reasons are historical. Asked what, exactly, was the harm in a teacher wearing a religious symbol, he said: “It sends a religious message. That’s… that’s the problem. And for the people who see it, it can certainly be interpreted for… for what it is.” Jesuitical, that. Asked how the rules will be enforced, by whom, and according to what precise guidelines, he waved it all aside. “If there is a problem eventually on the size of things, people will just sit down and agree.” Oh well, in that case…

The contradictions, inconsistencies, stupidity and injustice in all this are too glaring for any fair-minded person to overlook. So is the massive unwarranted incursion by the state into the private choices of individuals. The PQ, in a bid for a galvanizing cause, has resorted to demagogy, beneath which simmers barely concealed bigotry. This may be the battle Marois wanted: That no longer matters. The “Charter of Quebec Values” is an abomination. Quebecers and all Canadians should say so, come what may.

I am a national political columnist for Postmedia News. My work appears in the National Post, on Canada.com, the Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Halifax Chronicle-Herald... read more and Vancouver Sun, among other publications. I write primarily about national politics and policy.View author's profile